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<\/a><\/p>\nIn my review of<\/a> NASCAR 26<\/a>, I was not especially kind to the presentation. The soundtrack got compared to a can of Axe body spray fighting for joint custody. I stand by my work.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s the point of these articles. We already talked about giving Career Mode something interesting to do<\/a> and giving multiplayer somewhere to go<\/a>. I can keep complaining that I hate something, or I can explain what I actually wanted from it.<\/p>\n And yes, I care about this stuff. A lot.<\/p>\n The music matters. The menu matters. The way Kyle Larson looks when his stupidly talented face appears on my television matters.<\/p>\n That\u2019s part of the game, too.<\/p>\n What Does Being a NASCAR Driver Sound Like?<\/p>\n I think NASCAR 26\u2019s soundtrack was built around a very simple question: What music makes you think of NASCAR? And I understand how you get there. Southern rock. Country. Songs about driving. Lynyrd Skynyrd. A song literally called \u201cDale Earnhardt.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem is, I do not need the NASCAR video game to remind me about NASCAR. NASCAR is already on the box. I\u2019m good, bro, I get it. I want to know what music makes me feel like I am the driver.<\/p>\n Now we have something to talk about!<\/p>\n What does it feel like to walk into a place where nobody thinks you belong, and then make them watch you win? What does it feel like when everybody already knows your name? What does it feel like to be the guy they all came to beat? Or the guy hanging onto his career by a thread? Or the guy who had the biggest win of his life sitting right in front of him, screwed it up in Turn 4, and now has to stand there five minutes later and explain his feelings into Kim Coon\u2019s microphone?<\/p>\n That guy probably has a soundtrack, and it probably isn\u2019t the same one as the defending champion.<\/p>\n And before this somehow becomes \u201cJosh wants to ban country music,\u201d look at the playlist. There\u2019s T.I. There\u2019s DMX. Chevelle, Stone Sour, Finch, Soul Coughing, the genres aren\u2019t the problem.<\/p>\n There are songs on here I like, I promise!<\/p>\n The problem is that the whole thing keeps pulling me out of the driver\u2019s head and back into some kind of NASCAR hospitality event. I can hear this playlist while somebody hands me a lanyard.<\/p>\n Take \u201cSweet Home Alabama.\u201d Good song! We did it, everybody. I acknowledged one of the most famous songs in human history is good. But what is it doing for me here?<\/p>\n It just keeps elbowing me a little too hard in the ribs, like hey, hey, you see? NASCAR. Yeah, NASCAR. You see? <\/p>\n I GET IT! I want the music to tell me something dangerous!<\/p>\n Be Hungry!<\/p>\n Be Cocky!<\/p>\n Be Desperate!<\/p>\n Be Unbeatable!<\/p>\n Be Furious!<\/p>\n Be a little terrified, even, but absolutely don\u2019t let anybody know it\u2026<\/p>\n These are rich, famous, hypercompetitive professional athletes who slam into one another at nearly 200 mph and occasionally continue the discussion on pit road afterward with a five-finger prepared media statement. We have emotional material to work with here, you guys!<\/p>\n NASCAR 25 Had Some Teeth<\/p>\n This is why I liked the soundtrack to NASCAR 25 so much more.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t perfect. It certainly wasn\u2019t ashamed of Southern music. Molly Hatchet and Eddie Rabbitt were right there. But it had teeth, dammit!<\/p>\n Hanumankind\u2019s \u201cBig Dawgs\u201d stomps around like it just swept the weekend. Royal Blood\u2019s \u201cOut of the Black\u201d sounds dangerous. Chevelle\u2019s \u201cThe Clincher\u201d sounds like pressure to perform.<\/p>\n The important part is those songs do not all make me feel the same way. Sometimes I want to be the underdog, and sometimes I want to be an arrogant asshole who has decided this entire series is my personal property.<\/p>\n Then I absolutely beef a turn, and now I\u2019m the joke of the whole industry. Now what? That\u2019s interesting!<\/p>\n Winning when you\u2019ve been struggling for three seasons should feel different from winning because you have become an unstoppable monster. Blowing a championship should feel different from finally getting your first Cup ride. Getting dumped should feel different from being the guy who did the dumping.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t need the soundtrack dynamically reacting to all of this. Please do not invent another menu.<\/p>\n I just want enough emotional range in the music that those feelings belong somewhere in the world of this game.<\/p>\n Fine, Here\u2019s My Stupid Playlist<\/p>\n I eventually got tired of trying to describe this and made a playlist.<\/p>\n This started as a private creative exercise just for myself. It was never supposed to see daylight. But honestly, just listen to it.<\/p>\n Before anybody at iRacing forwards this to accounting, I have not priced The Roots. This is not my proposed licensing budget for NASCAR 27, it\u2019s just a vibe check.<\/p>\n Nas and Keri Hilson\u2019s \u201cHero.\u201d Hole\u2019s \u201cRock Star (Olympia).\u201d Damian Marley\u2019s \u201cThe Master Has Come Back.\u201d Kid Rock\u2019s \u201cI Am the Bullgod.\u201d Pennywise\u2019s \u201cFuck Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n These songs barely sound like they came from the same species of radio station. Good! They aren\u2019t connected by genre. They\u2019re connected by the person I get to pretend I am.<\/p>\n \u201cHero\u201d knows who the main character is. \u201cThe Master Has Come Back\u201d knows the expectations of a GOAT. \u201cI Am the Bullgod\u201d has reached a level of self-confidence that is definitely medically unsafe, and just sounds so perfect for a millionaire professional athlete cruising on Talladega Boulevard.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s \u201cFuck Authority.\u201d I\u2019ve spent 30 laps behind some dude blocking every move I make. I finally dump him. Now he wants to come find me on pit road and discuss the sporting implications. At that exact moment? Pennywise wrote this song for me, personally.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean NASCAR 26 needs a special \u201cI just wrecked this guy\u201d musical trigger. I do not need the game monitoring my emotional state. I need somebody picking songs who understands that this emotional state belongs here.<\/p>\n And so does triumph. So does humiliation. So does doubt. So does being an unknown kid from nowhere trying to get out. So does becoming so successful at this that you start manhandling that right trigger with the unshaken confidence of a Roman emperor who slept through history class.<\/p>\n We are playing at being professional race car drivers. There is a whole human being available to us in that fantasy. Give him some music.<\/p>\n Your Flight to Talladega Is Now Boarding<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the menu.<\/p>\n In the review, I said NASCAR 26\u2019s main menu feels like reading the five-day forecast on a television in an airport lounge.<\/p>\n And I want to be fair here. Airport information displays are very functional!<\/p>\n I can find Career Mode. I can find Quick Race. Nothing has fallen behind a potted plant. Great!<\/p>\n But why is that where a NASCAR game is taking me emotionally? I\u2019m trying to work up the confidence to go fight God at Talladega over here, and the menu is telling me breakfast service ends at 10:30!<\/p>\n NASCAR 25 had that lone car sitting beneath the enormous silver screen, drivers and pit crews flashing across it, cars ripping through quick cuts.<\/p>\n Was it the greatest menu interface in video-game history? No, I complained about that game\u2019s menus constantly.<\/p>\n But it had presence! It seemed actually excited that we showed up to play NASCAR!<\/p>\n NASCAR 26 has NASCAR imagery too. Larson is right there. But most of the screen feels like the paperwork I need to complete before they let you in the room with him. <\/p>\n And then we get to the greatest technological regression of our time.<\/p>\n Look at Connor Zilisch. Arms crossed, whole upper body on the screen, towering over the car. Dude is taking up SPACE! And just look at that No. 87 sprawled across the bottom of the screen like the Pharaoh Ramesses eating grapes from a servant.<\/p>\n Now look at the narrow card poor Connor has been filed into in NASCAR 26. Why is he crammed into that little tube, did bro try to drink from the chocolate river and fall in or something? We went from introducing a professional race car driver to checking whether his student ID is still valid.<\/p>\n They took away his shoulders! Yes, this is an incredibly stupid thing to get worked up about, I know.<\/p>\n But look at it!<\/p>\n The game has literally reduced the amount of space occupied by the person I am choosing to be.<\/p>\n Why, though? Whyyyyyy?<\/p>\n What was so important that Connor Zilisch had to be compressed into this little personnel file?<\/p>\n Christopher Bell Should Be a God<\/p>\n This is the part where I need everyone to understand that I am talking about a feeling. Christopher Bell is probably a perfectly normal person in many areas of his life. Maybe he forgets passwords. Maybe he gets annoyed when his DoorDash order is wrong.<\/p>\n I do not care.<\/p>\n In my NASCAR video game, Christopher Bell should be ten feet tall and shooting laser beams out of his eyes. This man should enter the screen with the emotional force of the hero in a Bollywood action movie.<\/p>\n Wind blowing, dust blasting away from his feet, eagle overhead, F-35s screaming across the sky, pit crew rolling behind him like tanks across the Rhine, the whole damn earth trembling beneath them like the Golden Horde just showed up for Qualifying.<\/p>\n I cannot tell you how much I want to feel spectacularly underqualified to race this man!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n